When doctors won't tell . . .
Of all the online nutritional information, nutritional facts, medical and
dietary sites there are to choose from, in an article entitled "How
to ease the pain" The Sunday Times magazine,
Culture, published a list of just five websites it
considered reliable and informative.This site was one of that five.

CONDITIONS
AND DISEASES PREVENTED AND HELPED BY A LOW-CARB, HIGH-FAT DIET

Conclusions Emotional stress can precipitate severe, reversible left ventricular dysfunction in patients without coronary disease. Exaggerated sympathetic stimulation is probably central to the cause of this syndrome.

COMMENT:

This study shows that experiencing extreme emotions can lead people to believe that they are having a heart attack.

Events such as a family death, car accident, fear of public speaking, or even a surprise party could trigger a condition called stress cardiomyopathy also known as "broken heart syndrome" – that mimics heart attack symptoms.

Lead investigator Dr Ilan Wittstein, from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, explained: "After observing several cases of 'broken heart syndrome' at Hopkins hospitals – most of them in middle-aged or elderly women – we realised that these patients had clinical features quite different from typical cases of heart attack, and that something very different was happening.

"These cases were, initially, difficult to explain, because most of the patients were previously healthy and had few risk factors for heart disease."

Although the people had signs of a heart attack on measurements taken with an electrocardiogram machine, blood tests did not show typical signs of a heart attack, such as highly elevated levels of cardiac enzymes that are released into the bloodstream by damaged heart muscle.

A clue to the origin of the symptoms came from analysis of levels of chemicals such as adrenalin in the blood, which were far higher among emotionally stressed patients than in people diagnosed with a regular heart attack.

The good news is that all stressed patients showed signs of recovery within a few days, and complete recovery in 2-4 weeks.

"Our study should help physicians distinguish between stress cardiomyopathy and heart attacks," said Dr Wittstein. "And it should also reassure patients that they have not had permanent heart damage."

Nevertheless, as adrenalin is also raised in people who have stressful jobs, and who rush meals, I wonder how many "heart attacks" are being wrongly attributed to raised cholesterol or other heart "risk factors", and skewing the statistics?

Last updated 18 February 2005

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